SACRAMENTO – Sitting five points below the red line with a crucial matchup against Minnesota United looming on Saturday (10 pm ET | MLS LIVE), Real Salt Lake's fourth round Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup game at Sacramento Republic FC on Wednesday was always going to test the squad's depth.
And with the club's affiliate in Real Monarchs SLC – currently atop the USL's Western Conference standings with an 11-1-0 record – playing so well, it made sense to go with a youthful lineup against a Sacramento side that had struggled mightily as of late.
With those factors in mind, RSL head coach Mike Petke started a lineup that included three Monarchs players and several members of the first team on the USL bubble, with veterans Joao Plata, Yura Movsisyan and Kyle Beckerman not even making the trip to California.
While Petke may have been pleased with some of the individual performances, Real Salt Lake struggled as a whole, coming up short in nearly every statistic while falling 4-1 to the hosts.
"The rationale behind the lineup is that we have a very good USL side so they deserved to play and we have some guys that are looking for minutes and we also have a big game on the weekend," Petke told MLSsoccer.com after the match. "So the rationale was to put out a combination of first team players and Monarchs players that have earned that right."
Homegrown players like Ricardo Velazco and Sebastian Saucedo both got some valuable match experience, with the former scoring an opportunistic goal from 20 yards out. US U-20 international Brooks Lennon put in a 45-minute shift off the bench, while second-year midfielder Omar Holness went the full 90.
But if all the processes were present to foster development, RSL’s youngsters played didn’t exactly rise to the challenge at Sacramento.
"How do I think they did? I mean, we lost 4-1. They weren't up for it like Sacramento was," Petke said. "We talked all week about [how] this is Sacramento's World Cup. We have to match them there. We talked about specifics. It played out the way that we didn't want it to play out.
"There were a lot of questions answered for me tonight regarding some players," he added. "I'm not going to share that, obviously, publicly, but there were certainly some questions both good and bad that were answered today."
With RSL's truncated Open Cup run now over nearly as quickly as it started, it's time for Petke to head back to the drawing board to attempt to right the ship for a squad that has compiled just a 4-10-2 record in MLS play and is currently the only team in the league averaging less than a point per game.
"It's continuing to implement what we want, make some adjustments, and then from there look to finish strong and then start a brand new fresh start in the preseason," Petke said. “[I] hope we make it into the playoffs this year and go far, and then start it from scratch next year."
